Tag: warriors

Occasionally I hear Jim Barnett and Bob Fitzgerald, the Warriors’ TV announcers, talk about how players who stay in college for additional years do not lose much from doing so – that not only do such players get better and become more mature from the experience, they also end up making the same amount of money (or perhaps more) from elongated careers.

As a Cal Bear, this makes me think of the upcoming decisions of super freshman Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown. Sorry Jim and Bob, I disagree with you because of former Warrior Chris Porter.

Porter is expected to be a late lottery pick in the June NBA draft. He could have been a lottery pick had he come out after an All-American junior season last year.

Chris Porter lost potential lifetime financial security by staying in school

Over 15 years ago, Chris Porter was a hot NBA prospect, projected to be a lottery pick after his junior year. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. A year later, after giving scouts a full year to focus on his weaknesses, he was drafted by the Warriors at the 55th overall pick (I was very excited by this pick, as I remember).

Let’s break this down for Rabb and Brown. As of today, according to DraftExpress (a reputable source on pre-NBA talent), Jaylen Brown would be the 4th pick (or is the 4th best prospect, however you want to read it) in this summer’s draft. Ivan Rabb is 14th. Both would be considered “lottery picks”, draft picks for teams that do not make the NBA playoffs, just as Chris Porter could have been so long ago.

So why should both Rabb and Brown leave for the NBA?

In a worst case scenario, any 1st round draft pick gets two years of guaranteed money upon signing. As of this year, the amount for the lowest 1st round draft pick (30th) is approximately $1.9 million dollars. Even if a rookie has a terrible agent (see: Ricky Williams / Master P), he would still more than likely get at least $1.5 million. (I am going to leave any net present value arguments out of this entire discussion, as well as taxes, agent fees, etc.)

If their draft positions hold, Rabb and Brown would get closer to $3M and $7M, respectively.

Minimum $1.5M dollars and a (virtually) guaranteed spot at worst case on a NBA basketball team for two years is nothing to scoff at, especially if you did not grow up in a fairly affluent family. I went to Business School at Kellogg (Northwestern). If I were offered this deal today, I would absolutely take the $1.5M now, despite having a good amount of work experience and knowing I can do other things. Thus to paint 20 year olds (who are probably unable able to do other things at this state in their lives) as silly for taking the money is a bit ridiculous.

Yes, it sounds great to believe in your talent, that the money will always be there, but that’s actually the dumb move.

Taking money now is the smart thing, if it is guaranteed. For any player’s long term development, he has to be in a good team situation in which he can grow (compare San Antonio Spurs vs Brooklyn Nets) – this is something a player has much less control over and thus, has much more risk. The money is guaranteed while the opportunity to play, be liked by a coaching staff, is not.

What are the opportunity costs for staying?

Other than having your draft position go down, costing you literally millions of dollars, if you get booted to the second round as Chris Porter, you will not have a guaranteed contract, or a contract at all. Let’s ignore the chance for life-changing injury too, which could happen but is rare.

In other words, if your stock falls for whatever reason and you fall out of the 1st round, you will AT BEST be making just 3.3% of what you would have made, IN THE WORST CASE, as the lowest chosen first round draft pick.

This is a huge drop. Yes, someone could make good money (six figures to low seven figures) internationally, but if you are just starting your career and feel you are an NBA player, you will probably try the DLeague first.

A key thing to note here is not just the relative different of the 96.7% drop in salary, it’s the absolute drop. If you had this disparity with Kobe Bryant’s pay, you would still be making $750K per year, a ton of money for 99% of Americans. But this is $25K, and you won’t be flying first class, staying in nice hotels. This is bus life, a hard way to earn $25K (roughly equivalent to making $13/hr at a full time job for a year).

If a player stayed in school in order to complete his college degree and then dropped out of the first round, I would say he wasted the point of going to college. Jaylen Brown, Ivan Rabb, get in the draft now and go to summer school in the future.

If you want a more current example of how delaying can matter, look at Skal Labissiere from Kentucky. If he could have entered the draft a year ago, he might have gone #1 overall. After a poor freshman season, however, he might now be picked towards the end of the lottery, a $4.5 difference in guaranteed money.

Is there another way?

In my opinion, college basketball (the talent level) suffers from elite players leaving early. It is harder for non-traditional powerhouse teams to create momentum off of strong seasons (if Rabb and Brown leave, the Bears program is very weak for next year). Players are unable to mature in a more natural (college) setting and have to develop their games in the constant pressure of the professional ranks among men 5-15 years older. In addition, unless they play for a terrible team, elite players will likely see more reps and minutes playing for a college team.This lack of elite players over consecutive years is also part of the college game’s ratings decline.

Solution: Let players enter the draft but continue to play in college.

How this would work:

College Players can enter the draft anytime in their college career.

If drafted in the 1st round, a player could stay in school up to their 4th year after their high school graduation year (you cannot stay in school forever).

Contracts are guaranteed (as they are today) for 1st rounders, while contracts for 2nd rounders can be offered guaranteed (optional by the team, as today). Contracts take effect once the player decides to leave school.

1st round picks do not have to sign their contracts, but their rights would stay with the drafting team until the end of their 4th year after high school graduation. Rights to 2nd round picks would only stay with the drafting team until the next year’s draft (a bit like the college baseball draft).

Players who want to maintain college eligibility cannot leave school and take time off to prepare for the draft process. Instead, teams can visit with them during specific break (spring break, summer break) periods. This will limit the number of workouts (and injuries) possible, but interviews should be fine. Schools like Kentucky would likely hold on-campus “Pro Days” as in the NFL, which admittedly could favor powerhouse schools in college recruiting.

Players give up their college eligibility completely by leaving school and going through the normal pre-draft preparations – this would be no different from today.

Teams can cut players with no salary cap hit (the year the player enters the NBA) in case a player seriously regresses (or for whatever reason), but the player still gets fully paid.

For NBA Teams

Teams no longer have to pay to develop players (ex. Jermaine O’Neal) and then see them leave once they are physically and mentally ready to contribute to a team. Thus, teams pay more for actual expected contribution than potential.

Insurance can cover players who (perhaps this can be paid in half by the player, through his contract, and the team) have a career-ending injury during college after being drafted.

Per Net Present Value, it is always better to have a financial obligation later than sooner.

Non-ready players take fewer jobs away from NBA veterans.

For College Teams and the NCAA

Teams can hold on to players longer, and coaches would no longer be in this weird “I want you to stay, but I swear it’s for your own good, not for mine” position.

Having players for multiple years helps sustain programs.

Consistency and multi-year player resonance creates better television ratings and attention, i.e. business revenue.

For Players

Significantly less risk. If you have a good potential draft position, get drafted and get guaranteed money when you leave. If you’re hot, strike. If you’re not, keep working.

Make progress on a degree (what college is for), become more mature, and improve your skills so you don’t flunk out (see: Anthony Bennett) once you do reach the NBA.

Some other notes about why this makes sense. First, we can look internationally. Teams like the Spurs have signed professional international players for years, knowing they are unlikely to come to the NBA right away. In that time, these players develop further and come to the NBA ready to contribute. These aren’t necessarily older players either – many European players (Tony Parker, Ricky Rubio, Kristaps Porzingis) turn professional as teenagers, before their college-age years.

In addition, with the NCAA’s supposed focus on amateurism, under this plan, players will not get paid anything until they leave for school. This is like getting a job offer when you are still in college, which is pretty common. MBA students often finalize their jobs up 10 months in advance of the actual start date.

I think these changes will not prevent players who can play in the NBA right away (ex. Karl-Anthony Towns) from jumping, nor should it. However, it can help the many players who have the talent, but not quite the skill set, with Brown and Rabb as examples. Jaylen Brown cannot shoot or handle the ball particularly well, and yet his physical talent makes him a great NBA prospect. An additional year or two would allow him to become a great player and make more progress on his academic ambitions without financial risk (aside from if his family needed money to survive right now).

This is a solution that helps everyone – both NBA and NCAA teams, younger players in college, older players in the NBA, and the NCAA as a business. Fans get to watch their NBA teams’ young talent in college and become more devoted and hopeful for their futures while enjoying their favorite college players for multiple years.

One of my first jobs was in Customer Service for Webgamezone, a company that later changed its name to RedOctane and produce the Guitar Hero videogame (yes, I was part of the team then too) franchise. I was on the front lines (I was told to “figure it out”) of dealing with hostile customers, but learned a lot in the process that people want to respected, listened to, and receive transparency.

[Edit: On March 16, I had a call with Gina Antoniello, Director of PR & Community Relations at the team. She was apologetic about the situation and explained what happened. Overall, she was friendly and understanding – I accepted the apology and hope that this won’t happen to future fans.]

That’s why I am very sensitive about customer service, and how often companies think dealing with customers as a cost center, and not a branding and loyalty growth opportunity. I also often write about poor and disrespectful customer service that leads me to hate the company and stop using it.

Sports teams, unfortunately, are probably more prone to this problem. Teams with established fan bases often treat social media as a team-to-fan one way channel, with no need to address fan issues or reasonable direct-revenue fan questions. Where does a fan turn to when these things happen?

But why should the Warriors care about me? They’re on top of the world – Stephen Curry and World Championships put them in good shape with or without me.

But how about the Santa Cruz Warriors, the Warriors’ minor league team that competes for 2,500 fans a night?

After attending the team’s 2nd ever home game, of which I enjoyed, I had been looking forward to going back. Then, I heard that Baron Davis (former Warrior great) had joined the NBA DLeague and would be playing in Santa Cruz. I messaged Baron on Twitter and asked if I could say hello and take a photo with him at the game. He gave me the thumbs up through a Like.

Wanting to be respectful of the teams and players, however, I wanted to ask the Santa Cruz Warriors the best way to do this – should I come early, where should I wait, etc. After all, the team was heavily promoting the Baron Davis visit to sell more tickets, and I was not asking anything unreasonable. I emailed the team (nearly a week in advance) through the email listed on its website, and sent messages on Facebook and Twitter. A few days later, I followed up on my email. Facebook showed that the Warriors read my Facebook (private) message.

The Warriors never replied. As the week closed along with forecasts of rain, I became more hesitant about going to the game. Not only would the weather be bad, (I would have a lengthy drive as well) but the Warriors did not seem to care about me as a fan and answer a simple question.

When Sunday (yesterday) came, I decided to not go. In addition, this experience has soured me on not going in the future. In past years, the Santa Cruz Warriors have also not answered my emails (about purchasing game-used jerseys) and messages (about being unable to unsubscribe from their promotional emails), and this experience has been a new reminder that the Warriors do not care. Unlike the Golden State Warriors, which could claim they get too many messages to reply to, the Santa Cruz Warriors average about 20 messages per day on Twitter. Why support private messaging and emails if you have no intention to reply?

Ultimately, it turned out that Baron didn’t play due to a minor calf injury. This somewhat validated my decision to not go, and general fear of missing out (FOMO). However, the Warriors game sold out, so I guess the team can say they didn’t need / want me to come anyway.

Thanks, Santa Cruz Warriors. Do not count on me for future sales or positive recommendations.

For all the talk about LeBron being tired in Game 4 or Andre Iguodala having a stellar game back in the starting lineup, there’s actually a secret reason why the Cavs weren’t able to conquer the mighty Golden State Warriors. After driving to Cleveland from Chicago, Ha and I had a plan to vex the mighty LeBron: we would visit all his favorite places and curse them. (We thought about driving by his house, but we ran out of time)

For example, here’s the famous LeBron Nike sign in front of Quicken Loans Arena. Ha poops on LeBron!

We also went to LeBron’s hometown of Akron to see how he grew up. This is where LeBron went to high school, St. Vincent-St.Mary. Incidentally, I used to really love LeBron and have owned his high school jersey for the last ten years. Nonetheless, Ha poops on LeBron (with her Stephen Curry shirt)!

Both LeBron James and Warriors’ hero Stephen Curry were born at The City Hospital of Akron. Because of that and as this is a hospital, no pooping here. We left the pooping to the newborn babies.

This is the original Swensons in Akron, LeBron’s favorite place for burgers. It’s a drive-in service spot, and this was the original location.We ate like LeBron (try the Galley Boy), taking away his power for the game!

Were our tactics successful? You tell me. Game 4, Warriors.

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I write whatever I feel like, and often do so foolishly. Opinions here are always my own unless explicitly mentioned otherwise.
Professionally, I am a startup warrior and I hold a MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern). I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (California).